


Metamorphosis

by dreamerbydawn



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Because they deserve so much okay?, Future fic sort of, M/M, Run Away, Starting a new life, [Spring break draft clean up]
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 21:29:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3665784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerbydawn/pseuds/dreamerbydawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Southside was a life sentence. No one got out of it and if ever anyone could? Those three were hardly anyone's bet. Still, as it turns out; all three broken down, beaten in teenagers needed was another chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Metamorphosis

The South side was rough, every one that lived there had jagged edges and they were all, in one way or another fucked for life. They had long rap sheets or were junkies or alcoholics or high school dropouts with no interest in their futures. 

Most of them got knocked up and hitched before they hit twenty and that was the life they got tied to. There was no getting out or getting away, not from there. No, south side was a life sentence. 

And if, maybe someone made it out, someone managed to wash away the dirt and free themselves from the deep rooted hold of their lifestyle, those three were anyone’s last bet. 

Mandy Skankovich? She had been around the block so much it was a miracle she didn’t already have a litter of kids or at least a few STD’s to pass around. 

Then there was her brother, South side thug Mickey fuck - u - up Milkovich, in and out of juvie twice, known for an assortment of different crimes, doles out beat downs left right and centre and probably has buried a body at some point.

And finally Ian Gallagher. Maybe he had a shot once, when he was hardworking and aiming to join the military, but the instant he got too close to the Milkovich’s? His future was lost and he became nothing more than a junkie hooked on acid. 

So when it came to a point where Fiona had threatened to throw him out if he didn’t get cleaned up and he had simply moved out, no one saw him going more than the two blocks that was the distance to the Milkovich household. 

And absolutely no one had thought that two months down the line, those three would take off. Sure, it was the impending return of Terry Milkovich from prison that had sent them packing, but still, the disappearance worried no one. They’d be back once Terry got thrown back in, where else would three people, who were as south side as they came, manage to go?

The answer seemed to be New York. They got themselves a shitty two bedroom apartment in a district that was hardly better than the one they had left and then they got themselves jobs. 

Ian was a dancer in a club again and worked in a little cafe during the day. Mandy worked as a sales girl in a clothing outlet and night shifts at a diner while Mickey alternated between being a mechanic in a local garage at day and a bouncer at the club Ian worked in during nights. 

And their first year away? It had been a wreck. Once the elation of getting out of the South side had passed, their jobs sucked them right back down to being miserable. 

They barely saw each other all at once, their jobs keeping only one or two of them at home at the same time and on the rare occasion that they did get an evening off, they bickered. 

It was mostly over nothing of course, their shitty apartment that needed better heating, grocery shopping, the few bills they had to pay, simple every day things that blew up out of proportion because they were exhausted after long work hours. 

Someone would storm out, someone would sulk and someone else would slam a door and pretend the other two didn’t exist for a little while. But the tension would show on all three of them, the toll their new life took and how they each looked harried and worn. 

After the first year, it settled though. They were beginning to get used to their long hours, learning to appreciate the quieter moments they shared and slowly normalcy seeped back in. 

They were together, closer than ever before and in the end, wasn’t that what mattered? Having the two people in life who meant the world to you right there with you?

Ian pushed them to get a GED and while Mickey resisted the hardest, the three of them somehow got there. Neither Milkovich actually believing that they had passed. But they did and they celebrated and figured, maybe life was getting better. Just slightly, but enough. 

It was the redhead that tried to push forward again, this time he deciding he was going to college. Neither his boyfriend nor his best friend had any inclination to join him, but he never expected them to. 

He simply signed up for a Fitness and Nutrition course by himself and the other two made sure to let him know they were proud of him. 

Ian having to give up some of his hours at the cafe while also paying for his education took it upon himself to work longer at the club, returning to his habits from when they were back home and going on the floor, doing lap dances and stripping for private parties. 

Needless to say his relationship took a hit and after the first year, for once, It was Mandy out of the three that was happy in love. Her photographer of a boyfriend completely enamoured by his tough but beautiful lover to instantly make her his muse. 

Two more years down the line, Mandy had survived her longest relationship and was willing to move to LA with her boyfriend, now insisting on dragging both Ian and Mickey with her. 

The couple were reluctant, didn’t feel the need to move again when they didn’t have to but Mandy was going one way or another and that meant they were in for the ride as well. 

Mickey supposed it wasn’t the worst thing. Ian had gotten his degree and the two of them had had way too many fights than they wanted to think about in this place, that they agreed a fresh start suited them. 

As it turned out, LA was the best thing that happened to them. Ian found a job quite easily, every one seemed to want a personal trainer and Mickey found another garage of much better standard to work at. 

They both had steady hours and were home by five and their relationship thrived again. And Mandy was on her own upward swing, modelling now having become a profession for her. 

Their apartment was bigger now, their fatigue a thing of the past and new friends something that was actually happening. 

In fact, it was surprisingly Mickey that was first to latch on to someone they could trust. His boss had taken a liking for the former thug and soon the older man and his wife were wrapped around the trio’s fingers. 

Somehow they managed to do the impossible and get Mickey to agree to studying for a management degree and the parental affection they showed for the three youngsters took them a long way. 

Mandy dumped her boyfriend of three years after he cheated, but had enough self worth and a long string of men to care too much for it. The agency she worked at had her thrown in with high ended bitchy barbie dolls as Mickey liked to call them, but somehow his sister managed to find her niche with them. 

Now Mandy, not wanting to be left behind had taken a couple of fashion courses, signing with the designers she modelled for almost the very instant she got her degree. 

Ian co-wrote a book on fitness at the insistence of a client, that did much better than he expected it gave him enough to buy into and become a part owner of a classy gym in the city. Mickey of course was now essentially running the business for the older couple that owned the garage he had joined, when they first moved to the city.

It was only a matter of time before Ian and Mickey got engaged, ten year anniversary since their first hook up and whatnot and then married in three months while Mandy was comfortable enough in her skin to not need to be validated by men and settled for a variety of boyfriends, changing every other month. She already had two men in her life that loved her unconditionally anyway. 

So now the three of them were in their mid twenties and their lives were unrecognisable when compared to the teenage they had spent in the South side. 

Their less than ideal childhood reared its head sometimes, sure. Mickey couldn’t entirely hold back on the occasional fight or two that he would get into, Mandy still kicked ass when anyone dared to cross her, she was still a Milkovich after all and she would always carry more than one weapon for self defense. Ian was more than willing to pack a punch in a high end party when someone dared to question his relationship. 

But apart from that and the nights they spent on the roof, getting high on weed or kicking back with too much alcohol, the smoking that none of them could quit and the language that didn’t entirely refine itself, they barely had traces of the South side in them. 

No one would have pegged those three to get out and thrive the way they did, but maybe metamorphosis didn’t hold true just for caterpillars waiting to cocoon themselves and emerge as butterflies. 

Maybe all three broken down, beaten in teenagers needed was a chance to turn their life around.

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happened alright? No wife, no abusive boyfriend and no mental illness. They were happy. The end.


End file.
